‘Avengers 3’ and ‘Avengers 4’ Will Each Be Their Own Thing

Never lacking in ambition (at least when it comes to the expanding frontiers of branding and marketing), Marvel boldly announced back in 2015 that the third film in the Avengersseries would be unlike those that came before it. At the time of the project’s initial reveal, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige clarified his plans to split Avengers: Infinity Warinto two parts that would be released independent of one another. Incredibly, however, Feige backpedaled on that can’t-fail proposition shortly thereafter, amending their plans to separate Avengers 3 1 and Avengers 3 2 into the simpler Avengers 3 and Avengers 4.

Collider ran an item today teasing their upcoming interview with Feige, prematurely releasing the morsel that he’s completely separating the two films. Originally, Marvel’s plan was to shoot the third and fourth installments concurrently for what I’m sure was a perfectly good reason. But the reasons to not do that apparently won out, as Feige has declared that they’re going to do things the old-fashioned way and refrain from mounting two massive blockbusters schedules with a single directorial team at the same time. Here’s Feige’s quote from the upcoming Collider interview:

We’re doing them one right after another… It became too complicated to cross-board them like that, and we found ourselves—again, something would always pay the price. We wanted to be able to focus and shoot one movie and then focus and shoot another movie.

His words make sense, though they do kind of invite the knee-jerk response of, “Well, yeah, there‘s a reason people don’t make gigantic movies two at a time. What was your original plan, even?” Let this be a lesson to all of us: Two movies are not one movie, and conversely, one movie should not be two movies. Numbers are fun. Have a lovely weekend.